Where's the. . . What's the

Occasionally I receive questions from people about where's the best place to find or buy or learn how to . . . something. So I thought I would share some sites with you that I use when looking for various technology related things.

First, when looking for reviews on equipment I always head to CNET or Test Freaks. I also find personal evaluations from customers to be very important in selecting a particular product. So going to sites like B&H or even Amazon to see what others are saying is recommended.

CNET

Test Freaks


When I am looking for design ideas or to see whats new out there I go to Smashing Magazine and Layers Magazine.

Smashing Magazine

Layers Magazine

For Adobe Flash related ideas and examples, nothing beats The Edge.

The Edge

A great site to checkout web design is the Web Designer Magazine.

Web Designer Magazine

Best Design Tutorials has a list of 50 design magazines available online.

Best Design Tuts

The Design mag is also a good site to checkout.

The Design Mag

File Recovery

So you deleted some files that you shouldn't have and now you are in despair. . .

Well. . . there's a chance you could get them back.

With data recovery software you can get access to deleted files on most hard drives, disks, and even memory cards. While most data recovery software comes with a price tag, there are some good free alternatives. One of the best is a program called PhotoRec. The program does not come with a graphical user interface (GUI), but is still relatively easy to use.

Give PhotoRec a try next time you need to recover a file.

Photo Sharing Websites

In the world of photo sharing the name of Flickr is as common as butter on bread. But there are others, including some that have been around much longer (like Webshots). Some photo sharing sites also provide services for making websites or printing photos. Here's a few of them:

Webshots
Photobucket
Picasaweb
Shutterfly
Snapfish
SmugMug
KodakGallery
DropShots
PhotoRocket
Pixable
ZangZing
Snap MyLife
LiveShare
Photofeed by Pixable

In the rumor mill, it looks like Google might be coming out with its own photo sharing site soon. Stay tuned . . .

iPad Competition

Even though Apple's iPad has cornered the tablet market, it has some strong competition. Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the soon to be released HP TouchTab offer some great alternatives to the iPad. Check them out:


Galaxy Tab

TouchTab

PROJECT IMAGIN8ION

Check out the first ever user-generated photo contest that will eventually become a short film. The contest is called PROJECT IMAGIN8ION and is sponsored by Canon and will be produced by Ron Howard.

Check it out . . .

Final Cut Pro X

Apple announced the release this morning of the new Final Cut Pro X. . . ! Included in this announcement are the all new Motion 5 and Compressor 4.

How a digital camera works